Fall River mayor continues crackdown on Colville-owned apartments; 2 buildings closed, 2 more may be next

City inspectors have closed two apartment complexes and are still going through other buildings on Hargraves Street this afternoon, Mayor William Flanagan said. The city is closing the buildings because of “horrific” sanitary conditions and inoperable fire alarms and smoke detectors, Mayor Will Flanagan said. At least 30 tenants were displaced.

City inspectors closed two apartment complexes and plan to shutter at least two more after combing through several buildings Tuesday on Hargraves Street.

The city is closing the buildings because of “horrific” sanitary conditions and inoperable fire alarms and smoke detectors, Mayor Will Flanagan said.

“There are large cockroaches crawling about. There are bedbug and flea infestations, and bullet holes in one of the buildings,” Flanagan said, adding that inspectors also detected “intoxicating levels” of carbon monoxide in one apartment.

At least 30 tenants were displaced Tuesday, officials said. They are being temporarily put up in hotels while the Fall River Community Development Agency works to assist them in finding temporary housing, said Fall River Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Sousa.

The city obtained inspection warrants last Friday from the Fall River Housing Court with the intention to inspect and shutter the Hargraves Street properties, several of which are owned by embattled landlord David Colville.

Flanagan said inspectors arrived on Hargraves Street just after 11 a.m. Tuesday, and found 117 sanitary code violations in buildings 37-48, and 63 Hargraves St.

With the shutdown of more Colville properties by city inspectors, a distraught Michielle Nova and her 3-year-old son were some of the lucky families who weren’t left homeless on Tuesday, at least for now.

But with only 48 hours before city officials decide what to do with the apartment building were she rents for $700 a month at 48 Reuben St., with rats, cockroaches and holes in the interior doors, Nova said she’s living in limbo.

“There was no notification,” Nova said, who has health issues, “The inspectors were here at 8 a.m., and by 9 a.m. they gave us two hours to get everything out — and whatever we couldn’t take, we wouldn’t be able to reclaim.”

Among piles of packed belongings in what was once a tidy apartment despite its decrepitude, Nova said inspectors later told the residents they could move back into their apartments, and in two days would make the decision either to have the city auction it off or give Colville a chance to bring the building up to code.

It had taken Nova three months to get a city Board of Health inspector to come and inspect her apartment, she said, pointing to rat droppings on a windowsill. The apartment passed inspection. Nova also showed pictures of rats she trapped and killed herself and a video of rats running around her apartment.

Nova’s boyfriend, Luis Resto, showed gaping holes in a bedroom and bathroom doors damaged by the violent boyfriend of a former tenant. Colville never repaired them. The couple has lived at the property since Jan. 1.

“I’ve got to get my family out of here,” Resto said.

Monday night before the city inspection, Colville installed a carbon monoxide detector, she said.

Page 2 of 3 - Outside the 43 Hargraves St. apartment building that was condemned earlier in the day, Toeu Rath, his wife, four children, his mother and father and wheelchair-bound older brother prepared to leave the place he’s lived in for more than 20 years.

The family and many others in the building complex would be going to the Caprice Motel, temporary housing provided by the city.

Rath was at work Tuesday morning when he received a call from his wife in a panic, and he left, telling his boss he had a family emergency.

“She said someone came to the door and threw a paper on the table (saying) the building was condemned,” Rath said.

A fireman told him the box alarms in the building weren’t working.

He worries the disruption the eviction is causing would affect his job. “I don’t want to lose my job,” Rath said. “I have a family to support.”

The city block on Hargraves is known to be a hangout for members of different street gangs, Flanagan said, adding that several buildings were damaged by bullet holes and tagged with gang graffiti. Flanagan described some of the buildings as “drive-through pharmacies” for rampant drug-dealing and other criminal activity, including prostitution.

“Some of the buildings on Hargraves Street had signs warning people to ‘Enter at your own risk,’” Flanagan asid.

Last Thursday, the Southeastern Massachusetts Gang Task Force seized two guns and ammunition from 63 Hargraves St., a 29-unit apartment building where they arrested an alleged member of the Tiny Rascal Gang.

Flanagan said the apartment building at 63 Hargraves St. has become the “worst problem property” in Fall River since city inspectors condemned Colville’s two “nuisance” properties on County Street in June.

Last Wednesday, police responded to an armed robbery outside 63 Hargraves St. A Town Taxi cab driver said he dropped off two fares outside the apartment building. One of the men went inside the building and returned a few minutes later with a handgun to rob the cab driver, police said.

“That block was literally the OK Corral,” Flanagan said.

On Tuesday — while inspectors were going through the Hargraves Street buildings — police arrested a man nearby on Quequechan Street after responding to a report of someone brandishing a firearm. Additional details were not immediately available Tuesday.

The 63 Hargraves St. building is one of more than two-dozen properties on which Colville owes back taxes. He owes $3,563.49 on the property, which has a total assessed value of about $1.2 million. Colville owes the city more than $500,000 in back taxes, officials said.

“He’s made no attempt to pay down his taxes,” Flanagan said, adding that Colville will be assessed the costs of relocating his tenants to area hotels.

Andrea Paughton, who was told she had to leave her basement apartment at 24 Hargraves St., said she feels safe in the area and said Colville has been a good landlord, but admitted her apartment is infested with bedbugs and she recently smelled gas in her apartment.

Page 3 of 3 - Dave Meade Sr. of 48 Reuben St., where Colville has been landlord for the past five years, had less kind words.

Meade, who was a victim of an attempted robbery in his apartment, said the properties Colville owns are crime-ridden with shootings and drug activity.